1816.] Lancashire-^The Manclieiter Address. 471 



to the patilotism of the.a4- 



Miuister — morkrd with a military peace, 

 ami girt with the fortifications of a war 

 establishment! Shades ot'heroic millions ! 

 these are your achievements ! Monster of 

 L,esiltmacy ! this is thy consummation ! ! ! 

 The past is out of ofir power; it is high 

 time to provide against the future. Ke- 

 trenchment and Reform are now become, 

 not ojily expedient for our prosperity, but 

 necessary to our very existence. Can any 

 man of sense say that the present system 

 ahould continue? — What ! when war and 

 p>ac€ have alternately thrown every family 

 in the empire into mouiniiig and poverty; 

 shall the fattened tax-gatliLicr extort the 

 Dtarvin;;; manufacturer's last shillini!, to swell 

 the unmerited and enormous siuecure of 

 some wealthy pauper? Shall a Borouiih- 

 liion<.'erini; Faction convert what is mis- 

 named the national representation, into a 

 mere insfrnrnpnt for ruisiui; the supplies 

 which are to gorge its own venality! Shall 

 the mock digniiaries of Whigism and 

 Toryism, lead their hungrv retainers to 

 contest the profits of an alternate ascen- 

 dency OTer the prostratt," interests of a too 

 generous people? These are questions 

 which I blush to ask — w hich I shudder to 

 think must be either answered by the Par- 

 liament or the people. Let cur Rulers 

 pfudenfly avert the interrogation. We 

 live in times when the slightest rcmon- 

 ittrance should command atteniion — when 

 the minutest speck tliat merely dots tlie 

 «dge of the political horizon, may be the 

 car of the approaching S|)irit of the .storm .' 

 Oh ! they aretimes wIiokc omen no fancied 

 «ecurity can avert; times of the most awfid 

 and portentous admonition. Establish- 

 ments the most solid, thrones tlie most an- 

 cient, coalitions the most powerful, have 

 crumbled before our eyes, and the crea- 

 ture of a moment, robed, and crowned, and 

 iceptered, raised his fairy creation on their 

 I'nhis J The warning has been given ; may 

 it not have been given in vaiu!" 



An alarming fire lately consnmed some 

 premises on Siiudehill, Manchester, occu- 

 jjied by Mr. Sheldon, grocer, and Messrs. 

 John Howard and Co. wire-wotkers. 



A general meeting of the people of 

 Manciieater was lately held in the open 

 space of grotmd between St. Peter's 

 clmroh and Deansgate. The Imstings were 

 formed of two carts; at a .•^hort distance 

 appeared a board, bearing in conspicuous 

 characters the words, ' Free and equal 

 Representation.^ The business of the day 

 ■was opened by the chairman, Mr. Knight; 

 and some spirited resohitions, &c. were 

 pasted. The strictest order prevailed, and 

 the people dispersed without betraying 

 any inclination to tumult or outra'^e. — It 

 was resolved to present an address or re- 

 moiistrance to the Regent ; but, not 

 having room for the whole, we have 

 «e!«ct6d the two iub(«qu«iit parasrapfas, 



•^hmx to. ,1000^005 



as creditable 

 dressers: — 



" Permit us further to state to youc 

 Royal Highness, tliat, as the last war par- 

 ticularly (accoiding to our conctption) 

 was unjustly and wickedly entered into, 

 contrary to the general interests of this 

 country ; and, as th*; supplies tiiereof w-ere 

 granted, not by the nal representatives of 

 your people, but by the agents of the 

 aiistrocracy, placed \n onr House of t^oin- 

 moiis, tlierefoie, we do not 1 ouceive our- 

 selves under any moral obligations to pay 

 the interest upon that part of what (t 

 called the National Debt, wl;ich is claim- 

 ed by the gieat land pnpiietors, place- 

 man, sinecurists, and contractors; and 

 then by applying the ^iiukmg Fund to thft 

 liquidation of tlie reurjiuing ciaini-, this 

 millstoite of the nation will be nearly an- 

 nihilated—besides, as a great part of this 

 debt was borrowed wlien moncv was not 

 more than haif tlie value it will be, when 

 things have regained their natural level* 

 this is another ri a^on for reduriiig the* 

 rate of its interest more than one half— 

 this argument wiil also apply to every 

 other branch of national expenditure. 



'♦ But, Sire, the i:i:rmt evil, and that 

 which we canu(.t Init consider as {[le i>ri. 

 mary one, as the great source from whicJl 

 all the others flnw, is, the viliatt d state of 

 our representation, which has been openly 

 and . repeatedly admitted, even in tli« 

 House of Commons itself. lii fact, it aiv 

 pears, from an imrefnted document, tliat 

 SI nicmbevs of tliat Hfusc^ receive out of 



the taxes above 2(X),n0n!. aDiuuiily that 



the most ignorant and venal part of the' 

 people inhabiting small boroughs, iiiHoi 

 enced, or dictated to, by tlieir proprie- 

 tors, return the major j)art of the mer.ibeif. 

 of that House; whilst many popnlotis 

 towns do not return any representatives • 

 and whilst, probably, the major part of 

 the inhabitants of the kingdom have no 

 vote at all, and conseqnciH'y have no 

 political influence whatevci, but are com- 

 pletely enslaved. Reprcienlation, Sire, 

 was not designed as a mere Igjiie Faiwug 

 to dazzle and deceive, but as a reality, 

 which should secin-e to us the preservation 

 of our persons, our properties, and our 

 rights ; and, wc should be unworthy the 

 name of Englishmen, if we did not re^'- 

 solve, by every constitutional nieans, id' 

 regain and preserve them. In short, Sire, 

 we are confident that it is owing to out 

 partial and vitiated represenhition, that 

 tlie measures cf your niiiiistcrs have, for 

 the last 'J:') years at least, been nuiformly 

 calculated to increase enormously the 

 riches of a.fiw, and sink tlie many into un- 

 precedurted difHculties, privations, de- 

 gradation, and niist;ry." 



Aiirrh-di -^ff- Henry RarroMt, to Mkij 

 Hatiuah Ilarnci,; Mr. Thomas Sulton, ta 



